


Stars in Conjunction

by PartlyCloudySkies



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Brawlroom Fighting, F/F, Future Fic, Mutual Pining, Reunions, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 07:18:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PartlyCloudySkies/pseuds/PartlyCloudySkies
Summary: Years later, years apart, they still recognize each other across a crowded dance floor.





	Stars in Conjunction

They came together from opposite sides of the ballroom, hope and trepidation intermingled. When they stood only a few feet apart they were like funhouse mirror images of one another: wide eyed and mouth agape, with one significantly taller than the other.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Lena said finally.

The ball went on around them for a moment. Then outrage overcame the initial shock and Webby put her hands on her hips. “Oh, _I_ shouldn’t be here? That’s what you have to say to me after how many years? Lena!”

Lena held a finger up to her beak and looked from side to side. Her eyes went to the security grunts lining the brightly lit chamber.

“Shhh! You’ll blow my cover, Webby!”

“That’s Lady Englebeth to _you_.”

“I can’t believe you used that stupid name.”

Webby scoffed. In her lonelier moments, when she drifted into melancholy-tinged wish fulfillment, she had dreamed of this. It was always even odds how it might play out — a kiss or a somersault kick — but in here and now all she could do was shake her head. She drew herself up to her full height — still falling well short of Lena, who, despite her indignation, Webby couldn’t help but note had grown very _tall_ since she had fled the McDuck estate.

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Webby said. “So when the herald announced _Duchess Brittania_ he must have meant that for someone else!”

“Okay, okay,” Lena said. She held her hands out beseechingly. People were definitely starting to take notice now. A few beady eyes peering at them from bloated faces flushed with alcohol. There were sneaky glimpses, no doubt from gossip hounds that circled these events like vultures. The guest list to this whole thing was a smattering of lesser nobles and the landed gentry of the United Kingdom. They rated just enough in the peerage to warrant a ball every now and again, but they weren’t notable enough to serve as fodder for tabloid rags.

They occupied a middle space that was uniquely valuable for intelligence agencies: important enough to be granted certain privileges and access, unimportant enough that an operative with an alias could slip in without too much attention.

When it came time to choose her alias, Webby had drawn a blank before that silly old name resurfaced in her head. It had been nearly fifteen years since that night. It was an odd impulse but she acted on it.

She didn’t know how to feel that Lena seemed to have the same impulse.

The ball moved around them and they pressed closer together to keep from being swept away. Lena was wearing a gown of the darkest material Webby had ever seen. She wore a high-neck bodice with patterned points of light on it that looked like beadwork, but closer inspection eluded Webby. It was like her eyes slid off the material. A sash was wrapped around Lena’s waist and tied into a bow with the tails trailing down one side over flowing black taffeta that reached down to her feet. Despite her anger Webby couldn’t help but acknowledge that the sever gown suited Lena perfectly. She was so involved in this acknowledgment that she didn’t notice Lena studying her in turn.

“I like your dress,” said Lena.

Webby’s gown was a dress of flared layers of pink and white tulle. Her bodice was pink with embroidered white patterns and one shoulder strap on her right and a lot of lace edges. A sterling silver brooch with embedded amethyst stones was pinned to the left side. She liked it well enough when she was being fitted for it, but against the elegance of the other guests she felt like she had dressed for high school homecoming. She smoothed down the front in a fit of self-consciousness.

“Thanks,” she said. Then she shook her head. This was not the time for this sort of behavior. She squared her shoulders and gave Lena a stern look. “Who are you working for?”

“Who are _you_ working for?”

“I asked first! Oh, this is ridiculous.” Webby stepped forward and before Lena could retreat Webby took her hand and pulled her in close, placing her right hand on Lena’s back and clasping Lena’s hand with her other hand.

“What are you doing?” Lena spluttered.

“ _We_ ,” said Webby, “are dancing. Or would you rather blow your cover?” 

Lena looked around, came to a decision, and sighed. She draped one hand over Webby’s shoulder and let Webby lead. They fell in step to the music and blended with the swaying crowd.

“Are you working for someone?” Lena said. “Or. Uh. Are you actually Englebeth now?”

Webby looked at Lena quizzically. “What?”

“Like, was there a wedding I didn’t know about or…” It sounded like Lena was attempting sarcasm and failing at it.

“Don’t be silly.” Webby said. “Look, we’ll just say it together, okay? Whisper it.”

Lena hesitated, then brought her head down close, next to Webby’s.

Webby counted down. “Three, two, one. SHUSH.”

“Louie Inc.,” said Lena.

“You are kidding me,” said Webby. “You work for Louie?”

“Contractor,” said Lena. “You work for your grandma’s old spy organization?”

“Freelancer.” Webby positively vibrated in Lena’s hands. “Just like when Uncle Scrooge met Granny.”

Lena raised one eyebrow and gave Webby a crooked smile.

“What?” said Webby.

“It’s nothing.”

A smile tried to form on Webby’s face and she had to consciously fight it back down. “Aaaaand what about you? I mean, really? Louie?”

Lena shrugged and the muscles in her back shifted under Webby’s palm. This really was interesting fabric, Webby though in a distracted way. “It pays. Shadow magic isn’t the most marketable skill you can have. I take my jobs where I can get them.”

“With Louie?”

“There’s worse,” said Lena. “Much, much worse. But I’m being a good, I promise. Shades of gray at worst.”

She spoke with a kind of preemptive defensiveness that made Webby slump. “Lena… I… I never judged you. Or… said you had to be a certain way.”

Lena kept her eyes over Webby’s head. “Look… never mind, okay? I didn’t really mean anything. Let’s just… we both came here with jobs to do. Maybe we should just… do them?”

Webby tried to catch Lena’s eyes and when it seemed like that wasn’t happening, she took a long step backwards, forcing Lena to put her weight on her leading foot. Then Webby pivoted, turning their dance into a dip. Lena gasped as she descended, but Webby easily supported her weight with one hand. “And then?” Webby said.

Wide-eyed, Lena stared up at Webby. “W-what?”

“Maybe we could talk?” Webby’s heart was beating rapidly. She had been acting on impulse so far, but it seemed to be working out! She brought them back up to a standing position. Lena looked light-headed.

“I… okay… look. Maybe.”

“Okay,” said Webby. Then she winced as the clandestine headpiece she had been wearing went off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. The agent I’ve partnered with is yelling at me about going off script.”

“I’m working alone.”

“Lucky.”

“Eh.” Lena took her hand off Webby and brushed a lock of hair that had been displaced by the dip from her eyes. “It gets lonely.”

“Oh.”

“So what’re you here for?” said Lena. “Recon? Retrieval? Recruitment? What’s your cloak and dagger deal?”

“Oh, um. Need-to-know.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “That’s the worst kind. Those jobs never go right. Why would you even take it?”

“Oh, ha ha. You know, thrills, adventure —”

“Following in Scrooge’s footsteps,” Lena said with that same crooked smile.

Webby frowned. “Well? What about you?”

“Retrieval.”

“Yeah? What?” Those were fairly frequent. There was no end to the magical artifacts or the doomsday weapons that needed to be wrangled.

Lena shrugged. “Need to know.”

“But you’re here alone! How would you even know?”

“They said I’ll know it when I see it. Something like that.”

Webby smiled up at Lena. “Those jobs never go right. Why would you even take it?”

“A girl’s gotta eat, you know?”

The smile on Webby’s face faltered. She wanted to tell Lena that she could have been free from want. That she could have lived comfortably. All she had to do was stay. She resisted. In that moment, more than anything, more than this mission, more than following in the footsteps of people she admired, the most important thing to Webby was not to drive Lena away. Whatever had precipitated her departure all those years ago, Webby was desperate not to repeat it. So she stayed silent.

“So,” said Lena. She brought Webby close and pitched her voice down. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I saw at least four dancers wearing concealed weapons under their clothes.”

“Mmmmmaybe… it’s traditional for nobles to carry weapons?” Webby suggested.

“I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing. I mean maybe. Security around here is really tight.”

Webby snorted. “This mansion is at least 300 years old but they’ve wired it up with every kind of sensor and surveillance system. My partner’s been trying to look for a way out of the ballroom into the rest of the mansion. No luck so far. He’s just saying curses into my head piece right now.”

“Yeah? Let’s do him a solid then.” Lena winked, quick and disarming like they were kids again and they could take on the whole world. “First we find a nice little corner.”

They waltzed with the crowd and this time Lena led. It was… nice. Webby decided this was very nice. Lena steered Webby towards a line of oriel windows framed by great big beams of dark, ancient wood that stood out in the white stucco walls. During their revolutions Webby couldn’t help but notice a general tension in many of the other guests. She didn’t know if this was normal for these sorts of events. People eyed exits and exchanged terse words in hushed tones with their partners. The effect of all this was that Webby felt like she had been transported out of a fatuous ball meant for a kind of toothless outdated aristocratic class, and landed in one of those Byzantine period pieces where everyone expects a dagger in their back.

As she mused, she felt Lena slow their movements.

“This looks good,” said Lena. As they continued their revolution, she closed her eyes.

Webby looked up at her and couldn’t help but trace the line of Lena’s neck leading up to her jaw. “Good for what?” she said in a soft daze.

Then Lena opened her eyes and Webby caught the flash of gold in her pupils.

Then they were pulled into the window.

 _Into_. Not through. Webby braced, head down and eyes closed, anticipating the familiar cold hard surface yielding to force. There was an art to crashing through a window and she had it down pretty pat. But _this_ … she had never felt the surface of glass slide over her like a razor-thin layer of ice before. It sent a wave of cold through her body and stole her breath when it passed over her lungs, causing her to gasp and open her eyes.

They were in space.

That was her immediate impression. There was vastness and darkness and a great, yawning vertigo as everything rushed away from Webby. Everything but Lena. She had drawn Webby into a tight embrace and the two fell into an unfathomable nowhere. As Webby moved to cling onto Lena ever tighter she caught a flash of silver behind her, the stark right angles of the window they had fallen through rippling like a pool of mercury and rather than shards of glass there was a trail of quicksilver droplets like a comet’s tail chasing behind them. And like sunlight reflecting from dew, the droplets flashed in Webby’s eyes and each flash was a frozen tableau of the ball they had left behind. The great hall, the people stuck in endless waltzing loops. Moments condensed into meteor shower trails that followed Webby and Lena down, down, down.

Webby turned her head and looked up at Lena and… had her breath not been taken away by all _this_ it surely would have been by the expression on Lena’s face. Gone was the strained smile and the vulnerability and that caution as if every spoken word could have double, triple, quadruple meanings that could crush her under their weight. Lena was smiling, wide and narrow at the same time. Joyful and cunning. The knowing smirk of an oracle who could see what lay around the next corner. The laughing, carefree grin of a trickster god who talked the proud sun into setting and shattered an icy lake to form the constellations in the sky from the shards.

Her eyes blazed with golden light and trailed energy like the plasma of a solar flare. And underneath that energy was… Lena. Her half-lidded casual mischief like when they were young. The years may have tempered her but it was still Lena underneath this wild and sparking power.

And okay, maybe Webby’s imagination was starting to run wild here but she could swear that Lena’s dress had become much more voluminous and it was fluttering and flapping behind them like a ribbon of darkness in a bracing wind. Like raven’s wings. Like the gravity-distorting lens of a black hole.

Shapes precipitated out of the blackness like ships emerging from fog. A strange, checkerboard world unrolled below them. It was a place so dark only shadows defined the edges of the objects they passed over.

“Vesuvius,” Lena said. Her voice was higher pitched here, as if the air were thinner. She nodded down towards a shadow of rock cliffs and boulders.

Then she pressed her cheek up against Webby’s, directing Webby’s eyes to an adjoining piece of land that was all right angles and towers with their details lost to darkness. “Duckburg,” Lena said.

Lena rattled off other names as they passed in low orbit over the patchwork world. An outline of a life that Webby could only guess at and wanted to know more about.

“This is… the shadow world?” Webby said.

“World, realm, zone, whatever you wanna call it.”

“This is where you were when you were…”

“Dead-slash-banished? Yup.”

Webby frowned.

“No, it’s cool,” Lena said quickly. “I mean, it happened to me, so I’m allowed to be all whatever about it, you know?”

“Was it… did it… was it dangerous?”

Lena looked at her and Webby could see the barriers go up behind the blazing glow of her eyes. “I handled it.”

“I wish…”

“Don’t. What happened… it happened. Wishing doesn’t change that.”

Webby exhaled. “Where are we going?”

“Just a quick little detour…” After a moment longer of free fall, Lena curled in on herself and brought the two of them through a slow somersault. Once they faced the trailing lights of the real world, Lena gestured at one and it exploded all around them and for a brief, disorienting moment Webby saw the shadow world and the real world mingle in a dizzying way. It was like a projection of one scene plastered over another. The contours didn’t line up and made her eyes ache. She kept them open though, and saw what looked like a dimly-lit hallway in the same Tudor style of the estate they had slipped out of.

Then Lena made another gesture and the shadow world burst like a bubble popped in slow-motion and Webby braced her legs as the two landed on the carpeted floor of the corridor.

Muffled by walls and closed doors, Webby could hear the chamber music from the ballroom. They had been gone for at most thirty seconds.

“How…”

Lena wiggled her fingers enigmatically at Webby. “Powerful magics.”

“When did you… never mind. Agent 81 is going to have an aneurysm when he finds out I’ve gotten out of that ballroom. The agency has been scouting this place out for months looking for a gap in the security!” Webby looked around, then turned back to Lena. “Wait, why didn’t you do this before? Instead of bothering with aliases and infiltrating a dance?”

“Couldn’t. There’s a perimeter of magic wards all around the estate,” said Lena. “Whoever runs this joint has done their homework. We’re talking serious anti-spell zones. One of our hackers had to put me on the guest list. Now that I’m on the inside I can throw down again. Magically speaking.”

Webby could hardly contain herself. “This is so great, between the two of us there’s no way we’ll fail! And then, maybe we can, uh…”

Beyond their voices and the faint music, silence reigned. So the soft mechanical click of a door practically thudded down the hallway and put the both of them on alert.

“Hide!” hissed Lena. She backed up and melded seamlessly into the shadow of a nearby grandfather clock. Webby executed a jump off of the wall and into the support beams that criss-crossed the ceiling.

Two figures moved swiftly but silently down the hall, legs lifting and falling soundlessly in practiced stealth.

“The organization expects results tonight.” One figure said to the other.

“The organization didn’t mention anything about who else was attending. I swear one of those guests nearly arrested me in Bucharest…”

Webby frowned and pulled the headband from her head, letting her hair tumble gently to frame her face. Her headband was serviceable as far as hair accessories went, but it was also made from a flexible material with wearable circuitry and two photon-sensitive lenses that, when she snapped it straight, activated a miniature battery that powered its night vision capabilities.

Whatever else was to be said about them, SHUSH knew how to provision a field operative. She flicked her wrist and activated the night vision, holding it over her eyes.

“There will be no more excuses. The artifact is to be retrieved tonight.”

“Yes, yes…”

The two bickered all the way down the corridor. Once they had moved on, Webby dropped down and Lena emerged from the shadows. When they reunited there was a moment where Lena tilted her head to one side and was looking at Webby as if with new eyes. Webby snapped her goggles back into a headband and smoothed her hair down putting it back in place and Lena shook herself back into the moment.

“I recognize them,” said Webby. 

“Me too.”

“What? You knew there was an international jewel thief and an agent from FOWL here?”

“Wait, what? No! They were in front of me while I was waiting to be announced to the ball.”

“They must be here undercover too!” said Webby.

“Pretty good act, but awful aliases. Guess we’ve got competition. Hey, wait, aren’t we competition to each other?”

“Can that be something we figure out once we actually _know_ what we’re trying to find?” said Webby.

“Fair.” Lena lifted her hand hesitantly in an awkward series of starts and stops before she finally took Webby’s hand in hers. “Come on. It’s this way. I can feel it. Powerful magics.”

They came to a branch in the corridor and Lena took Webby down one end.

“How did you get so good with magic?” said Webby.

“I hate to be cliche,” said Lena, “but when they say ‘the magic was in you all along’ it’s actually true. Especially if you’re, you know, a shadow creature. So that and a lot of experimenting.”

Webby didn’t know how to feel about that. Lena’s hand was warm in hers and… a little clammy, actually. Was she sweating? Was she nervous? She didn’t show it.

“You don’t feel like a shadow creature,” she said. “I can feel the difference. I punched a few.”

“Ha. Well. I kind of stopped worrying about the nature of my existence. The sleepless nights just aren’t worth it. It was a relief once I realized I was aging naturally, though. I was a teenager for fifteen years. Can you imagine? Dealing with puberty for fifteen years? I don’t mind telling you that it gets old fast. When I started aging out of it… that, uh, was a relief.”

Webby got the sense that Lena was talking more to herself than to anyone else. It was the kind of habit that Webby herself fell into after being on her own for a few years. Did Lena leave because she didn’t even know what she was? The question was added to the list of possibilities that Webby did _not_ want to dwell on but she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t not think of that moment so long ago even when the raw heartbreak of it forced her to flinch back like she had touched a hot surface. The fact that it was _still_ hot after all these years was just another thing she tried hard not to think about and if she wasn’t careful she was going to get stuck in a loop.

“Shit, someone’s coming,” said Lena. Fortunately they had a highly secure compound to infiltrate and that was a helpful distraction.

When they went into hiding again, Webby was again in a good position to observe. More silent movement and more hushed conversations by people who were dressed as guests.

Webby and Lena reconvened and Webby saw unease in Lena’s expression.

“I know them,” said Lena. “They’re from a private intelligence agency. Business rivals, I guess. I had to sabotage one of their operations in Singapore.” She looked at Webby. “I think things might get complicated real quick.”

“What was that you said about need-to-know jobs?” Webby said. Lena cracked a smile.

In time they came up to a vast chamber that was completely out of keeping with the architecture of the rest of the mansion. The floor, walls and ceiling were all poured concrete with banded metal. Webby and Lena peered into this chamber through its doorway. The door — secured with heavy locks and a keypad — had been torn from its heavy-duty hinges.

“I think we might be late,” said Webby.

“It’s not the first time we crashed a party in progress,” said Lena. 

Webby smiled. “Just… be careful. We’ll need more than a birthday cake here.”

She scrambled into the chamber, executing a roll and coming back up in a wide stance ready for combat. Instead, she found herself alone and with a massive vault door embedded into the ground. It was open, the passage unimpeded and the door leaning against a wall.

“This place used to be church property. The mansion was built here during the church land seizures,” Lena said behind her. “Might lead into some catacombs or a crypt or something. Brought your spirit wards?”

“Yeah, do you need a spare?”

“I was joking, but sure okay. Shouldn’t we get in contact with your SHUSH agent? Might need back-up.”

“I’ve been trying that every couple minutes,” said Webby as she walked towards the edge of the entrance. “No good. I think there might be some EM shielding that blocks anything but the shortest-range communications.”

“Okay then.” Lena hopped in place with nervous energy. “Down we go?”

They descended into a claustrophobic limestone-lined corridor. The air was musty and stagnant. Webby tapped the brooch on her dress and an LED bulb splashed cold white light over the ancient blocks.

“How many gadgets are you wearing, anyway?” said Lena behind her.

“Oh, about… I’m not sure, actually. At this point it’s all muscle memory. SHUSH gave me some new ones for the mission though.”

“This thing with SHUSH is… a commitment? I know you said freelance but…”

“No. This is my first time working with them. I mean, like, officially.”

“Hoping it leads to something more?”

“Eh.” Webby shrugged. “I mean I’m not even a citizen so I don’t think that’s possible. I guess I’m just building connections. You never know.”

“True that.”

“What about you?” Webby threw a look behind her real quick at Lena who, she couldn’t help but note, had to stoop down in the tight confines. “Working with Louie is a regular thing?”

“Not really. And ‘working with Louie’ is overselling it, I think. I barely see the dude. There’s a network of handlers with jobs and when I need some extra cash, I get in touch. I’m on the preferred list so I get my pick.”

“Aw. I always knew he liked your style,” said Webby.

“Pssh. Little brat barely remembers me,” said Lena. “I got on the list by being good at what I do. Not counting those orientation videos he does for contractors I haven’t actually seen him in… years.”

“Oh.” Webby didn’t quite know what to say to that. She kept in touch with the triplets and had just assumed that Lena did the same. It didn’t occur to her that Lena probably didn’t have any reason to. It touched up against that raw nerve again.

Well. Webby always preferred to take the direct approach. She took a deep breath.

“Lena… why did you leave?” she said. Her voice was small but it echoed. All the way forward, all the way back. All the way to their youth.

They walked in silence and when Webby resigned herself to never getting an answer, Lena spoke. “Is this really the best time to ask that?”

“I don’t think there is a best time,” said Webby. That and she half-expected Lena to bolt the moment they had finished with this place.

“Point.”

Webby heard Lena sigh, long and tired. “I… Webby I just needed to… God. Look. I feel shitty about bouncing like that. You didn’t deserve it. Not on top of everything else. But I… have never been my own person. Like, ever! And I needed to be that. To find out who exactly I was. And…”

“Did you?”

Lena snorted. “No. I must have circled the globe twice, stayed in a thousand cities. And all I found out was that everyone was as lost as I was. They didn’t even have an excuse! They weren’t a magical shadow clone puppet of a dark sorceress! They had families, they _made_ families! They got educations and jobs and pension plans! People were set for life, and not a single one of them had any deeper insight into that life than I did. They’re all just… coasting. We’re all coasting. So. Yeah. I… I learned how to control my magic after a while. At first I hated it. It just reminded me of _her_. Did you… ever run into her?”

“Yes,” said Webby. They were always ugly moments. Webby and Magica, by rights, never should have entered into one another’s orbits. But that first encounter in the ruins of the money bin was so fraught that it became the foundation of vendetta. It didn’t rival the one between Magica and Scrooge, but it was up there. Magica had learned that Lena was a sore point for Webby and she loved to rub salt into that wound every time they fought.

Not that Webby would ever tell Lena that.

“Okay,” said Lena. “Well, I haven’t. Which is completely cool with me.”

“Why didn’t you… come back?”

Another long pause.

“I was ashamed. I thought about the way I left, like, constantly. And I left for nothing! So. How could I just pop back up and be all like ‘what’s up’ like none of that ever happened? It would have been…”

“A lot like this?” Webby said with a slight edge in her voice.

Lena sighed again. “Yeah.”

“A lot like this, which isn’t actually that bad, all things considered?”

“Webby, come on.” There was reproach in Lena’s voice. “Not everyone can just charge headlong into their problems the way you do.”

“What? I’m not asking you to… all I wanted was for you to just talk and not run away the moment you got your body back!”

“I just finished telling you I needed to figure myself out on my own!”

“Well did you have to do it literally everywhere except Duckburg?”

“I couldn’t because of you!” Lena said. And then she winced. As if the words stung her as much as they did Webby in that moment. Webby seriously doubted it.

“What?” she said.

“I didn’t… I didn’t mean it like that,” Lena said. “I mean… goddammit. It wasn’t because of you. I was… I don’t know. Worried? Scared?”

“Scared about what?” Webby said slowly. She had stopped and they were facing one another.

“Because I, aggh.” Lena dragged both her palms over her face. “Because I didn’t want to be your Della, Webby.”

It took a moment for the words to register, they were so unexpected. “My _what_?”

“You saw how the boys got when they found out their mom was on the moon!” Lena said. “They got obsessed! They nearly killed themselves going to space multiple times!”

“That was when you were still in my shadow,” Webby said, voice flat.

“Even after I came back you were so… so… Look, whatever else became of me, I didn’t want you obsessing over rescuing me! You deserved to have your own life.”

“And you didn’t think I could do that?”

“Oh, don’t even pretend that you couldn’t get obsessive.”

“But… you got out! And I didn’t have to obsess over it! We just made it work! Then you left! Was I just… did you not like being around me? Can you just say that? Instead of… whatever this is?” It felt to Webby as if the corridor were closing around her.

“No, I —”

“Ladies, hands up please.” A new voice interjected and the two turned to see that a small squad of ballroom guests had collected behind them. The one in the lead had a gun pointed at them. “I’m sure under normal circumstances I might not seem much of a threat,” said the gunman in a neat, cultured accent. “But consider that we are in a narrow space with no way out. Even if I were to fire randomly — which I will if I see any movement that I do not approve of — I’d be likely to do some serious damage. So cooperation would be best for all involved.”

From the corner of her eye, Webby could see that Lena was looking towards her. Webby, however, stared straight ahead into the barrel of the gun and raised her hands, palm facing forward.

“Very good,” said the gunman.

~~~

They were led out to the end of the tunnel and into a vast underground dome. Stone columns rose from floor to ceiling in a pattern that radiated from a central location.

And in that central location, there was a rock.

There was a sword stuck in it.

At any other moment, in any other time, Webby would absolutely climb the walls over this fact. The sword. The stone. Too many legends swirled around this particular configuration of two otherwise humdrum objects. In the ruins underneath a church in England. She should be having serious heart palpitations. Right now she could barely look up from the ground.

She had always suspected it was her fault.

Of course she knew she could get obsessive. She had long grown out of the “keep an entire flowchart of the history of Scrooge McDuck on a corkboard in her room and stare at it at night” phase. But the corkboard was in the shed now. Still intact. Just in case.

She tried to keep a lid on that kind of behavior. Lena was probably right. Webby would have obsessed. It was inevitable. She knew this because there were times in her youth when she would lie awake in bed and spontaneously wonder if Lena had a favorite food and Webby could get really good at making it and they would have a meal together and she’d ask Lena what was her favorite color. Or what kind of climate she liked, specified to the nearest coordinates so Webby could draw up plans for a trip there. Or if there was a specific star she looked up at during the night and if it was one of those stars where Webby could buy the naming rights and —

 _Doing it again_ , Webby thought to herself. Her shoulders sagged and her feet dragged and the ropes binding her wrists felt like the densest lead and even the cavernous dome above seemed to press down on her.

When their captors bound Webby and Lena together against one of the columns, the only thing keeping Webby upright were her restraints. They were left to themselves while everyone else gathered around the sword in the stone. Halogen lights on yellow tripods were spaced around the area and cast everything in harsh lights and sharp shadows. There were hushed conversations and Lena was nudging her but Webby wasn’t feeling particularly at home to the world in that moment.

Lena stomped on her foot. “Webby! Please! We need to get out of here.”

Which, of course. Webby was morose but she wasn’t dead. While she was mulling this upsetting confirmation of all her fears she had already mapped out at least five different ways to escape.

“Why are you even here?” she said. “You could have gotten yourself out of this.”

“Wha… Webby, I’m not leaving you here, come on!”

“I can take care of myself.”

Lena’s head went _thunk_ against the column. “Webbyyyyy.” She bent her legs and slouched down against the column, attempting to get closer.

“Webby… look. I didn’t know how to handle your… my… our feelings. So. Yes. I ran away. That was not your fault. My leaving was in no way your fault. You paid so much attention to me —” 

“I obsessed.”

“ — _You paid attention to me_. I was a neglected child. Somebody giving me the time of day would have looked like obsession to me. You did so much for me. And I felt like I didn’t deserve that. And I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“I left because I wanted to go out into the world and become… someone who deserved that attention. That made sense to me back then. It really did. So I traveled the world and… no one had answers. Nothing makes sense to me now, and I’m still scared.”

“What could you possibly be scared of?” Webby looked up for the first time in a while and Lena arched an eyebrow at her.

“Self-determination… kind of sucks, Webby. Sometimes.” Lena’s words faltered and she swallowed. “Sometimes I wish I had her voice in my head again.” She spoke as if saying that sapped something out of her. “At least then I’d, I dunno, have a purpose. A reason. And I know how sad that sounds, okay? I really, really do.”

“Lena! It’s not sad! You were — that was your life! It’s not something you can just shut away.”

“Yeah. Well. Sometimes I think I just want someone to follow. And that scares me. Because I don’t think I should feel that way. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? And if, I mean… like… uh… if I had to… choose…”

“Choose what?” said Webby.

Lena looked at her then looked away. “If I was going to follow someone… I’d want it to be you. I just don’t know if I should feel that way is all. When I say I didn’t want you to obsess over me… that’s my dumb ass projecting. The reality is I’d be the one obsessing over you.”

“Oh… Lena…” Webby was of two minds about this revelation. Hell, she was of several hundred. There was just a geometric growth of scenarios in that one statement. “If you… have you talked to anyone about this?”

“Like therapy? Never really occurred to me,” Lena said. “Look, Webby, I’d love to hash this out and all, but maybe not now? The bottom line is… I left. It wasn’t your fault. I needed to find an answer. And when I didn’t… that was still an answer. I don’t regret leaving. But I regret leaving you.”

Webby mulled this over. Her head was in a jumble right now, but it was a jumble she felt she could pick through and make sense of. Things weren’t entirely resolved, but she felt better? About it?

If infiltrating a mansion and getting captured and held at gunpoint was what it took to get a heart-to-heart on the matter than she was going to have to see if SHUSH had another job lined up after this because she felt that they had made some progress together.

“Webby?”

She shook her head. “Right, right. You’re right. We should focus.”

Before them was a kind of bizarro mirror version of the ballroom above. The crypt was absolutely crammed with people, and they were all in evening dress. They milled around the sword and stone and there were multiple heated conversations. Webby recognized a few of the intruders they had run into while sneaking around.

“I don’t believe this. Was _everyone_ on the guest list a spy or something?” she said.

“Looking that way. Wanna get out of here?”

Webby thought about this. “Okay. So, obviously yes, but we still have a job to do. We can’t just let that thing fall into unknown hands.”

“Is it really Excalibur? Like from myth and shit?”

“I haven’t appraised it or anything, but I’m pretty sure it’s our need-to-know retrieval target at least.”

“Yeah, okay. So we can’t leave without it, but we can’t just take everyone on.” Lena tilted her head in thought. Then she got a gleam in her eye. “So, remember that night we first met?”

“Um, yes? Completely?” said Webby.

“Remember when we got tied up?”

Webby’s brow scrunched in thought. Then she gasped. “You don’t think that’s seriously going to work here, do you?”

Lena shrugged, all devil-may-care attitude once more. Then she cleared her throat to project her voice.

“Hello! Hellooooo! Hey! Excuse me! Over here!” She shouted. It took time, but she managed to get everyone’s attention eventually. A crowd of eyes, all focused on them.

“Wow,” said Lena. “Look at you all. Was there anyone on the guest list who wasn’t a government agent or corporate spy or internationally infamous thief?”

From the crowd, there was one raised hand.

“I’m from a secretive doomsday cult.”

“Fantastic,” said Lena. “Just really great. So how come none of you have taken the doodad over there? That sword thing?”

Eventually a self-appointed spokesperson stood out. The FOWL agent. She was tall and sharp-featured. Older but with a solid frame that suggested lean muscles. Webby assessed that if there was anyone to worry about in a fight, it was likely her. “Obviously none of us can extract the sword.”

“I mean, yeah, obviously,” said Lena. “But nobody has to take the sword right?”

The crowd murmured.

“Like, you take the stone, and that means you take the sword with it. You’ll need earth-moving equipment. A forklift or whatever, but it’s doable, right?” said Lena. “I mean, we’re all representatives of powerful organizations who can make that happen, right?”

The FOWL agent pondered this. A lot of people in the crowd pondered this.

“So I guess the only _real_ question,” said Lena, “is which one of you get to do it.”

The FOWL agent scoffed. “Well, obviously _I_ should do it.”

“Give someone else a chance!” Another voice in the back yelled out.

“Yeah!” Chorused more voices.

Webby struggled to stay poker faced through this.

“Oh, here we go,” Lena whispered.

From within the throng, there was the sound of shoving. Then the sound of a punch connecting with flesh. Then someone chanted “fight, fight, fight!”

Somebody threw ninja stars.

~~~

Somewhere in the melee, Webby lost track of Lena.

Things were going great up until then. Webby had performed a perfect spinning roundhouse kick that hit seven people, which was a new personal best. Then she hit one guy with another guy, then she did that thing where she grabbed two people by the head and knocked them together to make a hilarious coconut sound. She had always wanted to do that.

When she hopped up onto an assassin’s face and pushed off to leap to a clearing and catch her breath, she realized that she couldn’t find Lena. A number of scenarios could account for this but her mind was already dwelling on the one where Lena left her once again and Webby felt her innards lurch between the adrenaline thrill of hitting a dude real hard and the sudden desolation of fear. She didn’t notice the bruiser looming over her with the sledgehammer.

But she did see it when his shadow detached itself from his feet.

“Huh whuh?” said the bruiser. Then his shadow ripped itself from the ground and tackled him. 

Lena materialized from the darkness.

“You getting tired, Webs?”

“No! I thought I lost you!”

Lena’s smirk softened. “I’m not leaving any time soon.”

“I don’t suppose you can summon up an army of shadow people?”

“No way. When Magica did it she had a magic talisman and the power of a lunar eclipse. It took a lot of effort just to get that one up.”

“We have to end this somehow,” said Webby. “The owner of the mansion’s going to call in riot police or something at some point. Lena! Look out!”

Lena was sent sprawling as someone charged her from behind. The FOWL agent, the corded muscles of her arms visible beneath her torn dress. She looked down at Webby with gritted teeth.

“I don’t know how this is going to end, but when I kill you I can at least go back to headquarters and let them know I took a SHUSH agent off the board.”

“Actually I’m a freela — oof!” Webby braced against the kick but there was still force enough in it to send her spinning across the floor. Pure happenstance kept her from colliding with any of the other brawlers, which was cold comfort when she smacked painfully against solid rock. She twisted, favoring her side that absorbed most of the impact. Her head was ringing and her vision blurred but over the battle she could hear the rushing footsteps of her foe. She had to stand up.

Webby braced one hand on the coarse rock and reached up. She felt rough leather over cold metal. She tightened her grip on it, got her feet under her and stood up.

She felt and heard the grate of metal sliding over stone. Her hands dipped under an unexpected weight.

Everyone under the dome fell silent. Webby’s vision resolved and…

“Oh. Um. Oh shoot.”

She was holding the sword in front of her, the hilt firmly in both hands and the broad blade angled at the FOWL agent. Everyone was staring.

The light that reflected off of the blade pooled along its edges like glowing honey. A chime like an oiled finger running along the rim of a wine glass rang out and grew louder. The blade began to glow.

Several spies stepped back. Webby looked around helplessly.

“Just so everyone knows, I have no idea what this thing is about to do,” she said.

“Run! We’re all gonna die!” said a voice that she strongly suspected belonged to Lena.

The light grew in intensity and the humming made her eardrums itch and as the sword began to crowd out everyone’s senses there was a stampede for the exit. Webby stood rooted in place and prepared herself for anything.

She did not expect soft warmth enveloping her from behind. Lena’s voice filled her head.

“I got you, Webby.”

Lena’s hands closed over hers, careful to keep from touching the sword. A veil of shadow protected Webby’s eyes and she braced herself against the reassuring presence of Lena’s body. Lena pressed back.

And then the light died down and the humming ceased.

A moment passed before Webby dared to open her eyes. She was alone, with Lena behind her and the sword in front of her. She let out a breath.

Lena chuckled. “Damn. It really is just zero to a hundred when I’m with you, isn’t it? You okay?”

“Yeah,” Webby said a bit breathlessly. “That was… really cool. You? Are you hurt?”

“I’m good,” said Lena. “At least you won’t have trouble taking that back to SHUSH.”

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Webby had to admit she’d completely forgotten about that. “But, wait, no. What about you? You should take it. I mean, if you need to pay for bills, I can’t…”

Lena shook her head. “Webs, I’m kind of worried I might burst into flames holding that thing. I don’t think I’m valiant enough or whatever. You take it.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” said a third voice, cutting through the stale air. “I take it, and you two go on your way.”

Webby and Lena whirled to face the new voice. At the entrance stood a woman in a business suit that contrasted with the ancient ruin. Her flats tapped against the stone floor as she stepped into the light. Webby gasped. This was shaping up to be a weird night.

“Goldie O’Gilt?” she said. The shock nearly caused her to drop the sword. Goldie radiated tranquility and control, as ageless as Scrooge and just as likely to drop into Webby's life when she least expected it.

“Hello, dearie,” said Goldie. “It’s been far too long. How is Scrooge? The old bag of bones is simply useless when it comes to keeping in touch.” She circled the pair like a carrion bird. Webby turned to keep her in view, though she lowered the sword.

“You infiltrated the place too?” Webby said.

“Infiltrate? Is it possible to infiltrate property that you already own?”

“Wait,” said Lena. “ _You_ own the mansion. You were the anonymous benefactor!”

Goldie nodded. “The mansion, the grounds, and everything underneath are all mine. Emphasis on _everything_. All very legal."

“And it just happened to have a magic sword beneath it?” said Webby.

Lena touched her shoulder. “This was a con,” she said. “She knew this was down here, but she couldn’t get it out, so…”

“So I made a few strategic anonymous leaks,” Goldie said. “The right words in the right ears. A rundown mansion over an ancient church and a thing of unspeakable power within. Remodel the place, beef up security. Show them that they need to send their best. Every hero and every scoundrel. Then sit back and wait until one comes along that can pull out the sword. Just like the old stories. I should have figured it was going to be one of McDuck’s little minions to do the deed. Congratulations, Webigail.”

“Hold up,” said Lena. “Scoundrels? Why scoundrels?”

Goldie gave a languid shrug. “I’m a moral relativist. Besides, a king can be a scoundrel. Most are. Maybe all that stuff about only the purest of heart being able to pull out the sword was just propaganda.” She gave Webby a measured look. “But it looks like there may have been truth in advertising after all.”

Webby met Goldie’s gaze, unwilling to look away. Lena drew her in tightly from behind.

“You two are adorable,” Goldie said after a beat. “And you did what I needed you to do. The sword. Now.” She held out her hand.

“What are you going to do with it?” said Webby.

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

“It doesn’t belong to you!” Lena said.

“We just went over the fact that it does.”

“Webby’s the one who pulled it out of the stone. That means it’s hers!”

Goldie gave Lena a sly look. “I know who you are. You’re that shadow girl. You did quite a number on this young lady. I respect that. Also, a word of advice. Don’t let inanimate objects make decisions for you. It doesn’t work out. Now, I won’t ask again.” She motioned with her open hand.

Webby tossed the sword, flipping it end over end. Goldie caught it by the hilt with ease. She held it up and regarded her reflection in the blade. “Perfect.” Then she met the expectant stares of Webby and Lena with a knowing, sidelong glance.

“What is it, dears? Expecting it to put a curse on me or the like? It’s just a sword.” She lay the flat of the blade across one shoulder. “Well. That’s it for this old dump. I’ve got the only thing here that holds any value. See you when I see you.”

She turned away and headed for the exit. She passed the stone columns before stopping and turning back to Webby and Lena.

“Ladies,” she said with a commanding voice. She turned and this time when Webby looked in her eyes, there was no glimmer of greed in it. She just looked… tired. “I’ve been watching you two from the security cameras. Take it from me. This whole ‘will-they-won’t-they” thing you’ve got going on is all very cute. For now. But eventually you’re going to get old and when you do, you’re going to look back and wish that you had been more honest with one another. Do yourselves a favor. Sit down, talk things out. This kind of thing might be fun in the moment, but it gets old fast.”

Webby and Lena stared at her. Then they stared at each other. Goldie turned away and waved back at them with her free hand.

“Give my regards to Scrooge,” she said. Then she was gone.

The silence that followed was ringing. Webby’s every sense was on full alert. At that moment she felt like she could hear spiders scrambling over pebbles.

She felt Lena squeeze her shoulders behind her.

“Let’s, uh, get out of here, yeah?”

Webby nodded and together they left.

~~~

“I can’t believe you gave up the sword just like that,” Lena said. “I’m pretty sure you’re, like, actual royalty now. Or at least when you had the sword. How does sword succession work?”

They were sitting on the roof of Goldie’s abandoned mansion. The many spies had scattered, security had vacated and Goldie wasn’t going to turn up again. A quick inspection of the rooms revealed that many of them were unfurnished and the furnishings that were there had come with the mansion. It was like Goldie had never even set foot in it. They had opened up an attic access and huddled together for warmth under the stars.

“I don’t want to be royalty,” Webby said. It was a very easy decision to make. “Besides, after the last time I inherited a monarchy, I promised myself I’d give it to someone else as soon as possible.”

“This happened before?” Lena said.

“I’ll explain later,” said Webby. “The key point is that we can never set foot in Belgium.”

Unexpected, but not unwelcome, Lena pressed herself closer to Webby and wrapped her arm tighter around Webby’s shoulder.

“Who’s we?” said Lena.

“O — Oh. Well. I mean… I just…” Webby was about to deflect with some cringeworthy excuse like how she had meant to use the royal “we” in an ironic sense or something when Lena held her tighter.

“Because if you meant you and me, then I think we could give that a shot.”

“Really?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I don’t regret leaving, but I regret leaving you. I don’t have to make that choice anymore. We’re both free agents. We can move around as we please. And… if it pleases you, then we can do that together.”

“Yes!” said Webby, barely containing herself. “Yes, absolutely!” She pivoted and the one-armed hug Lena had her in became a full hug and in the tangled limbs and the laughter they slid down several tiles before they dug their feet in and came to a stop. Webby lay on top of Lena, and Lena was looking up at the stars as she ran her fingers through Webby’s hair.

“I’m going to make it up to you,” said Lena. “Or… or I’m going to try. I’m going to be the person who deserves your attention.”

“And I’m going to prove to you that you were always that person,” said Webby.

“Okay.”

“Some night, huh?” Webby picked at her clothes. “I don’t think any amount of dry cleaning is going to save this dress.” Her layers of tulle had been ripped in so many places, and there were a few bloodstains.

“A shame. You look real good in it. Oh, that reminds me.” Lena closed her eyes and a darkness enveloped her.

Webby got on her knees and edged away. Lena re-emerged and she was no longer wearing her black dress. She was in an oversized sweater and sweatpants.

“I don’t believe what I am looking at,” said Webby. “Your sense of style hasn’t changed.”

“Be nice. The gown was a shadow illusion. I like to dress for comfort.”

“That was a shadow? That’s amazing!”

“Ah, well, you know. Disguises are pretty easy. Good for my line of work.”

“There’s so much I still have to learn about you,” said Webby.

“Same.” Lena said. She leaned into Webby. “But we have time now.”

“Yeah.”

They sat a while, and they watched the stars, and they talked. 

When the distant sirens became a string of police vehicles driving in a convoy around the winding mansion grounds, the two had long since vanished.


End file.
